Cubicle 7 has shared the cover of the upcoming Loremaster's Guide for it's D&D 5E Adventures in Middle Earth. The art is by Ralph Horsley. Cubicle 7 says it's hoping for a PDF release of the book by the end of December, but that the holiday season might push it into January. "The Loremaster's Guide is packed with extra setting material and advice for running Adventures in...

Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Star Trek Adventures opens its playtest to the public, official MLP gaming news, the ASA says Hello Games didn’t use deceptive advertising, Steve Jackson Games new products and organized play announcements, and more!
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Cubicle 7 has shared the cover of the upcoming Loremaster's Guide for it's D&D 5E Adventures in Middle Earth. The art is by Ralph Horsley. Cubicle 7 says it's hoping for a PDF release of the book by the end of December, but that the holiday season might push it into January. "The Loremaster's Guide is packed with extra setting material and advice for running Adventures in Middle-earth. There are expanded rules and guidance for running Journeys, Audiences, new rules for combat and adversaries, and a whole lot more." The Player's Guide was released in November.

Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Star Trek Adventures opens its playtest to the public, official MLP gaming news, the ASA says Hello Games didn’t use deceptive advertising, Steve Jackson Games new products and organized play announcements, and more!

Welcome back to our weekly look at tabletop roleplaying game, and accessories, crowdfunding roundup! Each week we’ll be looking at a few campaigns currently running that have caught our eye as well as occasionally speaking to some of the creators about their campaigns, or looking at some of the ‘behind the scenes’ business aspects of putting together, launching, operating and then delivering a crowdfunded project. If you have anything you’d like us to cover, or questions about anything we talk about, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me directly.

Back in March I made a trip out to the Left Coast, to visit some friends out in California that I usually only get to see at hectic gaming conventions when none of us really have the time to hangout. It just so happened that, while I was out there, one of the big California-based comic conventions, Anaheim's WonderCon, was going on. It was great fun, because I was able to meet a lot of comic creators who don't normally make it to the conventions that are in my part of the country. One of the creators that I met was the artist and writer Ming Doyle. She has done a lot of awesome comics from Constantine to Mara to the Vertigo Comics book The Kitchen.

Justin Achilli - well-known writer, designer, and developer from the heyday of White Wolf - is back in a big way with this very exciting new project. Folks have been playing the party/RP game about finding werewolves in the village for many, many years; almost every single convention I've been to has either an official gathering for it, or impromptu hallway games erupt in the middle of the night. Now, the game of lying to your friends about your other friends in order to not get eaten or murdered on the spot comes to virtual reality.

This week's Unearthed Arcana column from WotC's Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford gives us four new fighter archetypes: Samurai, Sharpshooter, Arcane Archer & Knight. The Arcane Archer is a master of elven archery, weaving magic into missile attacks; the Knight is able to mark his foes and hold the line; the Samurai gains benefits through sheer willpower; and the Sharpshooter has various ranged combat abilities.

On eBay, a seller called editorjan is selling an original woodgrain box D&D set from 1974. That's the good news. The bad news is that, with four days left on the auction, it's currently sitting at an eye-watering $5,600! "Yes, the "granddaddy of them all". Published by Tactical Studies Rules, a fledgling company (at the time) of Gary Gygax, Don Kaye, and Brian Blume. The game is based on the fantasy portion of the earlier Chainmail rules, and also requires the Outdoor Survival war game (by Avalon Hill) to play. Original D&D Set (woodgrain box) by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson Contains three booklets (Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, Underworld & Wilderness Adventures) plus a Reference Sheets booklet. The Reference Sheets booklet (actually just loose pages stapled together), was exclusively available in the Original D&D Set. Nearly every set we've heard about has a booklet with varying pages, from 6 to 12; as far as we know, each printing has the same info, only differing in format and number of pages. The set was first printed in late January 1974, and very likely was not publicly available until the second quarter of 1974."

Wizkids have announced, and started previewing, several new sets of D&D and Pathfinder miniatures due for release in early 2017. There are two D&D sets, the pre-painted Monster Menagerie II in the Icons of the Realms series and the unpainted Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures, whilst Pathfinder Battles will see the release of the unpainted 'Deep Cuts' series.

Everything is Dolphins is a bare bones role-playing game created by author and musical artist Ray Weiss and later released, with accompanying art, by Tim Hutchings. Everything is Dolphins in turn has its roots in a groundbreaking video game, Ecco the Dolphin. And Ecco the Dolphin was inspired by some bizarre real-life experiments with dolphins that influenced the creation of the video game.

A rundown of the New Releases that should be hitting games stores this coming week! Board games, card games, RPGs, and a host of collectible games... hopefully something for everyone! For more information about any of the products please contact your local games store.

Tabletop roleplaying games are all different; even D&D editions are all different. Some rely heavily on tactical encounters featuring grids and miniatures; others take place entirely in the imagination. In D&D terms, for example, 4th Edition was very mini-centric, while 5E is much more accommodating of theatre-of-the-mind. Each has strengths and weaknesses - arguably, the former allows for more precise, tactical play (which many groups enjoy), while the latter allows for more flexibility and more cinematic encounters. Which do you prefer?

This past week, kicked off as it was by Cyber Monday, gave me the inspiration to do a Cyber-Week, celebrating all-things-cyberpunk in RPGs. That means Shadowrun, of course, but there's quite an array of things for your perusal across the spectrum of games and systems for this ironically venerable genre. Please note that the daily Sean's Pick of the Day has returned to its original site, though the Picks of the Week will continue here on E.N. World.

The public playtest for Modiphius' Star Trek Adventures tabletop RPG has launched worldwide with over 5,000 players in a storyline penned by writers including Dayton Ward (NYT bestselling author) and Scott Pearson. The living campaign will run until mid-2017, when the core rulebook is released, taking place in the unexplored Shackleton Expanse near Starbase 364. Different playtest experiences are available depending on which group playtesters signed up for, with different groups focusing on combat, diplomacy, and so on.

Hello everyone, Darryl here back from the holidays with your update on gaming news! Wizards of the Coast has new streaming events and a change to its D&D organized play, Cards Against Humanity throws money in a hole, Worldbuilders raises money with a unique gaming twist, and Joe Dever has passed away.

Welcome back to our weekly look at tabletop roleplaying game, and accessories, crowdfunding roundup! Each week we’ll be looking at a few campaigns currently running that have caught our eye as well as occasionally speaking to some of the creators about their campaigns, or looking at some of the ‘behind the scenes’ business aspects of putting together, launching, operating and then delivering a crowdfunded project. If you have anything you’d like us to cover, or questions about anything we talk about, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me directly.

Joe Dever, creator of the world of Magnamund and author of the Lone Wolf series of game books, has passed away in hospital at the age of 60. He had suffered from health complications in recent months, and sadly had to cancel his attendance at the Lucca convention in Italy at the end of October. In recent years, Dever had been working with RPG company Cubicle 7 on the Lone Wolf Adventure Game. I had the pleasure of interviewing him a few years ago at the Dragonmeet game convention in London. The Lone Wolf game books were a series of books which started in 1984 set in Dever's world of Magnamund. His books sold over 11 million copies worldwide.

New for EN5ider patrons! The holiday season is all about charity, and Jeremy McCoy accordingly presents the new Charity domain for 5th Edition clerics, along with information on St. Nicholas and other saints in your campaign. Illustrated by Ellis Goodson. Become a patron now and get this and over 100 other 5E articles and adventures!

The dream that I think many may dream, at least in regards to fantasy role-playing games is "How can I get my favorite older edition of D&D to work with some more modern ideas?" This dream has lead to things like the OSR movement in tabletop gaming, with many gamers' "favorite version of D&D" spiced up with some more contemporary ideas. It has brought us Swords & Wizardry. It has brought us the works of Kevin Crawford. It has brought us Castles & Crusades. I would argue that it is what brought us Dungeon World. Now, it brings us the latest design by Johnstone Metzger of Red Box Vancouver, the game The Nightmares Underneath.

EN5ider, the 5E magazine, begins its holiday season of giving with a look at Inspiration and ten new ways of awarding it in your 5E game. These new rules include Action Hero Pools, Bringing The Drama, the Dead Pool, Devil's Bargain, Dramatic Flair, Epic Success, Epiphany, Gm's Reward, Inspired Damage, and the Player Inspiration Pool. Each approach serves a different purpose and encourages a different play style. Use any of these methods, combine them with the standard inspiration system, or mix and match to suit your needs. By Mark A. Hart; illustrated by Ellis Goodson.

357 pages - a magnum opus! The third and final act of the critically acclaimed ZEITGEIST: The Gears of Revolution Adventure Path now compiled into a gorgeous hardcover book (this is the PDF - the hardcover will be available very soon)! These four adventures are the third act of a steam & spell campaign for the Pathfinder RPG (also available for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition very soon).